Drug infusion systems dispense fluid medication, containing a drug, to a patient. Some drug infusion systems are portable, allowing a patient to receive fluid medication while remaining mobile. In addition, some drug infusion systems are implantable to more effectively and less obtrusively dispense such fluid medication to a patient.
Implantable devices and techniques for treating a patient by drug infusion are well known in the prior art. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,798, Rise, entitled Techniques For Treating Eating Disorders By Brain Stimulation and Drug Infusion; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,814,014, Elsberry et al, Techniques of Treating Neurodegnerative Disorders by Brain Infusion, each assigned to Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn., disclose such devices and techniques and are hereby incorporated by reference.
Another example of a drug infusion device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,527,220, Summers, entitled Implantable Drug Administrator, an implantable drug administrator having a refillable bladder which can be filled with a drug and a pump for selectively pumping the drug from the bladder into any desired area of the body. The administrator includes an indicator for indicating when the desired amount of the drug has been injected.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,951,147, Tucker et al, entitled Implantable Infusate Pump, a rechargeable infusate pump for implantation in the human body can be refilled periodically by injection through an inlet septum under the skin. A conduit conducts fluid to an infusion site in the body. The pump outlet includes a special controller flow controller which is able to very accurately meter the infusate to the selected body site.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,692,147, Duggan, Drug Administration Device, assigned to Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn., discloses an implantable drug administration device which can be non-invasively programmed to change both the dosage amount and the dosage interval. Verification of the received dosage and interval commands is achieved by means of an audio transducer which is attached to the device case.
The implantable drug administration device described in Duggan allows a medical professional to program to the delivery rate of a drug contained in the reservoir of the device over a specified interval. The process, however, to achieve an even reasonably complex dosing regimen is laborious and time consuming. Each interval must be specified and the particular delivery rate must be individually programmed. For all but the simplest of dosing regimens, this system is not only laborious and takes too long to program but also prone to error due to the painstaking programming steps which must be accomplished.
Implantable drug infusion devices and systems are commonly programmable with a plurality of programming steps. Each programming step typically is conducted for a specific time or a specific period of time and specifies an amount of fluid medication or a rate of delivery of fluid medication to a patient. A plurality of programming steps can typically be sequenced to create a programming cycle delivering fluid medication to a patient at different rates on different days and, perhaps, at different times.
A program cycle is typically designed, i.e., planned and developed, to cover a set of known time periods, e.g., a period of one week. Each day of the week could be separately programmed or one program could during each week day and a different program could run on a weekend day, for example. Each step in the program cycle, perhaps each hour of the day, could have a different programmed delivery amount or delivery rate.
As an example, drug infusion devices could deliver more pain medication during night-time hours when a patient has a need to sleep and less pain medication during waking hours. Other patient activity schedules can and are accommodated, of course.
Since the program cycle is typically designed to be effective based upon a patient's changing needs during the period of time covered by the programming cycle, the programming cycle typically is essentially constructed with a beginning time corresponding to a natural beginning of the patient's activity cycle. For example, a programming cycle may begin at midnight on Sunday night/Monday morning or perhaps at a time corresponding to the patient's arising at the beginning of the work week, e.g., around 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning.
Upon implantation of the drug infusion device, the device may need to be programmed, i.e., a new or modified programming cycle may need to be installed, loaded and/or activated. Or, not infrequently, the drug infusion device may need to be adjusted or readjusted to take into account variations in the patient's condition and/or the patient's activities, for example.
Usually the time at which such implantation and/or adjustment or other programming activities occur when convenient for both the medical professional and the patient to schedule a visit. Such a visit usually occurs during daytime hours of a week day, i.e., usually clearly not at a time associated with a natural beginning of a patient's activity cycle.
When initially programmed and/or adjusted, it is usually desirable for the programming cycle to take effect immediately or at a time earlier than the next beginning of the full programming cycle. For example, if a programming cycle ran for a full week with a starting time of 12:01 a.m. on Monday morning and the initial programming and/or adjustment appointment occurred at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, the patient would have to wait until the next Monday morning to take advantage of the new or newly adjusted programming cycle.
Further, a similar but somewhat opposite problem occurs when a medical professional wishes to view or review the programming cycle settings of an existing drug infusion device already being used by a patient. In order to make the drug infusion device as small as possible and to maximize battery life, the programming information is often cryptically installed and formatted in the device. A medical professional who reviews a programming cycle and may wish to modify the programming cycle at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon (during an office visit by the patient) may find it cumbersome to be reviewing the middle of a programming cycle.